Really hear? The effects of audio quality on presence

Abstract

The extent of sensory information presented to a user within a mediated environment has been proposed as a determinant of presence. (e.g., Sheridan, 1992). While a large proportion of presence research has focused on visual manipulations, research on manipulations of auditory characteristics is currently limited. In this paper the effects of several audio manipulations on the sense of presence and ratings of specific audio/visual dimensions were explored. In the first study, a 5.1 `rally car' audio mix was rated significantly more highly than either a mono or stereo audio mix on some presence measures and specific audio dimensions. A second experiment was designed to investigate potential contributory factors.